(Clearwisdom.net)

"I can't take the lead on this"

On the afternoon of January 5, 2001 I was instructed to prepare to leave. Two officers from the local police station handed me a notice and said to me, "You still have chance if you repent for your fault." I told them, "I didn't do anything wrong. What do I need to repent for?" The police said, "No regrets? Ok, you will have to spend two years in a labor camp."

Huanxiling Forced Labor Camp in Jilin City set up a special team to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. I was put into No.3 Class. On the fifth day of my being there, the team head Liu came to see me, accompanying the Education Section head Zhao Xun. Zhao Xun told me, "I heard that you used to be a body guard for high-ranking party leaders. The young people all respect you. Could you take the lead? If you say you give up the practice I will let you go home to enjoy a happy family life."

I smiled and said, "I accepted your kindness toward me, but I can't take the lead on this. I had viewed all the TV programs and have read many articles that have criticized Falun Dafa and Master Li since July 22, 1999. They are just lies and personal assaults. Nothing has convinced me."

Zhao became impatient and said, "You go back to think it over. Come to see me when you are ready."

On March 7, 2001, the labor camp officials gathered a total of 198 Falun Gong practitioners together from different teams plus the special team previously assembled to form a new division for the sole purpose of persecuting Falun Gong. This special division was composed of three teams: "most-restricted" team that located on the second floor, "general-restricted" team on the third floor and "loosely-managed" team on the first floor. All forces were concentrated to target the practitioners for intensified persecution.

The day after the new division was formed, practitioner Pan Jingwen in No.2 Class of the most-restricted team was beaten and put into solitary confinement because he didn't stretch his legs straight when he was ordered to do "sitting on a board" (a type of torture, sitting on a small low bench still for a long time). The practitioners in No. 2 Class decided to start a hunger strike to protest this outrageous abuse. I was in No.1 Class and we decided to do the same, to support Pan's righteous act.

On the third day of the hunger strike, division head Liang and the head of the the Judicial Bureau showed up. They asked each class leader to send three representatives to the division office to talk about the hunger strike. Liang admitted first that they were wrong to beat people. We raised three conditions. First, release Pan Jingwen from the confinement; second, put an end to such beatings; third, change the way of "sitting on a board" that required the two legs to be kept straight. After I explained the third condition, Liang basically agreed to our conditions. The first hunger strike lasted merely three days and ended successfully.

Three or four days later, the practitioners in the general-restricted team on the third floor learned the news of our hunger strike. To support our action, they started a hunger strike, which surprised the division leaders. They thought the practitioners in the general-restricted team were usually quiet and easy to handle. Division head Liang didn't keep his promise not to beat people any more and organized the police to brutally beat the practitioners. More than ten police officers started to savagely beat them. We agonized when we heard the loud sounds of the beating and painful cries of fellow practitioners from upstairs. "Stop beating! Beating is illegal!" we called out loudly and kept stomping on the floor to alert the practitioners on the floor below that something happened. We asked to see Liang, but no one showed up. In the following two or three days we only saw the officers on duty but no others. Together we decided to start another hunger strike.

On March 13, practitioners in the whole division started a hunger strike. The whole building was dead quiet. Some practitioners said, "It is not a good sign." In fact, the authorities were holding an emergency meeting about this situation.

The next morning at 9:00 a.m., we again heard sounds of beatings from the third floor, much louder than before, and more miserable cries from the practitioners. Through the window we saw that several people carried some practitioners, blood on their heads, to the yard. They were placed into a jeep and presumably being taken to the hospital. We couldn't keep quiet any more, calling out, knocking on the doors, stomping the floor or knocked on the heating radiator in order to stop the outrage.

When the upstairs sounds had just calmed down, the metal gate of the most-restricted team was suddenly opened. Led by Administration Section head Zheng and Zhao Kezhuan from the Education Section, the staff from the two sections and about a dozen police officers rushed in viciously, like wolves or tigers. Everyone held an electric rod or "wolf's fang" stick (a rubber stick with protrusions, filled with lead, able to damage internal organs without showing any injury on the surface of the body. It is a most vicious torture tool, and although outlawed, it is still being used in the labor camps.) They were followed by division head Liang with about 20 guards, who were also holding electric batons and "wolf's fang" sticks. They began to beat everyone they encountered. About thirty people beat the practitioners for about an hour. The practitioners did not fight back. Then the team head Chao from the most-restricted team started to call people's names. Whoever had been called out would be dragged to an office and stripped. Two people would continue to beat him if he didn't agree to stop the hunger strike. Seven practitioners were beaten so severely they became unconscious on the spot. Many people had skull fractures, broken bones or torn ligaments, and two were sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. We found out later that 90 people in this divisioin had been subjected to barbaric beatings. More than 50 people suffered severe injuries, 15 people were in a coma, and five people were sent to the clinic or hospital for emergency treatment.

After this incident, the authorities tried to cover it up and imposed a curfew. No visitors were permitted including those for the criminals. However, in just a few days, the whole Jilin City was in an uproar. The labor camp had been built at the foot of a hill. Standing at the slope of a hill outside the camp one can overlook the whole camp. Every day, several hundred people would surround the walls of the labor camp and question the officials why no visits were allowed and if they had done shameful things. Some threw stones into camp yards and some went to question the higher authorities. All the leaders of the camp were hiding and were afraid to come out and meet the masses.

It was not the first time that Jilin City Labor Camp enforcers had ruthlessly tortured practitioners. One practitioner was tortured to death there in 2000. This news had been exposed on Clearwisdom Net and created international shockwaves. To hide the evidence of their crime, the labor camp perpetrators secretly dispersed the beaten practitioners to other locations. The first group of 50 practitioners, most of them suffering severe injuries, was sent to Liaoyuan, Siping and Tonghua; the second group of 50 was sent to Heilongjiang Province. They kept the transfer as top secret and the practitioners were only informed 10 minutes prior to departure that they were leaving, but were not told what was going to happen and where they were being sent. Some practitioners were carried or helped onto the vehicles.

Practitioner Hou suffered severe beating injuries from the "wolf's fang" stick. He had fever and coughed every day after being transferred to Liaoyuan. A lung X-ray revealed that he had potentially fatal lung problems - his lung lobes were filled with sand-size holes and he could die any time. The doctor was amazed, "You suffered such severe injuries and are still alive." Afraid to take responsibility, the Liaoyuan Labor Camp officials immediately ordered his family to take him home.

Please see Part 1 on
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/2/17/45179.html